One of the ways in which opponents of the nation-state law are attempting to portray the legislation as detrimental to minorities and anti-democratic is to make it seem as if the law is an exception to what is considered the norm in other enlightened countries.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Many countries have declared themselves nation-states, and this declaration usually appears in either the preamble to their constitution or one of its first clauses.
Although numerous minorities live in Slovenia, that country's constitution sets out the Slovenian people's right to self-determination. It is also interesting to note that Slovenia was accepted into the European Union after it adopted its constitution.
Other countries have gone even further, declaring themselves the states of one people or one religion. The first few lines of Ireland's constitution mention an allegiance to Jesus Christ. How is it that Ireland's non-Christian citizens are able to live with the wording of their constitution? Unlike the radical elements among Israel's Arab population – and the leftists who incite them to anger – it seems Ireland's minorities accept the values of the majority and its right to self-determination.
Denmark's constitution is even more resolute: Article 4 establishes the country not as an egalitarian state or a state of all its people but as Lutheran Christian. Denmark has minorities, of course, including Jews, Muslims, and Christians of other denominations - but for some reason, the right of the majority to fashion its national home as it sees fit has not come under attack. Why is something that is permissible for Ireland and Denmark forbidden for the Jewish state?
Defining Israel as the nation-state of the Jews does not impede on the individual rights of the citizens of the state. Indeed, Israel is the paragon of the protection of these rights, especially as concerns minorities.
In Israel, for example, it would be unthinkable to prevent minorities from dressing as their religion prescribes. In enlightened Europe, however, this type of violation of the freedom of religion does occur. Denmark in recent days began to implement its ban on the niqab; police there detained and fined a woman wearing the traditional Muslim garb for the first time, Friday. Similar bans have already been enacted in countries like France and Belgium.
Israel's nation-state law determines that non-Jews "have the right to honor their days of rest and holidays." Is such a right also afforded to all the minorities in Europe? Most certainly not! The same is true of linguistic rights: Although millions of French citizens speak Arabic, and millions of German citizens speak Turkish, these languages have not been afforded any official status in those countries. Israel, however, ensures the Arab minority's rights to its language and culture, allocating resources to that end and even running an entire education system in the language of the minority.
Israel is not just the only democracy in the Middle East; it is actually freer than our allies in Europe. The provisions of the nation-state law are not only not anomalous but in fact more democratic and more favorable to minorities than comparable laws in the "Old World," where for some reason they feel it is their right to preach morality to us.
